Jakob and Leena

“Jakob?”

“Yes, Leena.”

“Did you get the newspaper? It should be here by now.”

“Not today, my love. You were so tired.”

“I’m never too tired to read to you.”

In sixty years, Jakob had never won an argument with his wife, and he was sure he wasn’t going to win this one either. He went to the front door, opened it, and picked up the daily newspaper from the mat.

A generation prior, Jakob’s and Leena’s parents came from Uglich, a rural Russian town. Their families had lived three streets apart, yet were strangers until the day Jakob first met Leena at a movie house in Brooklyn.

Jakob, sixteen at the time, spoke with a thick Russian accent. He had been in America for a little over a year and had no time for school, as he was the primary breadwinner for his family. Leena, on the other hand, had spent all of her fifteen years in America and spoke perfect New York City English, a fact made evident when Jakob tried to park in front of the theater where Leena worked taking tickets.

“What’s the big idear? You can’t pahk ya cah here.”

Jakob was instantly taken by the pretty young girl who put r’s where they didn’t belong and removed them from where they did.

“I am Jakob.” He smiled. “I not be here long.”

“You mean you won’t be here long.”

“Yes, that’s what I said.”

“No, you said—nevermind. Just move your cah.”

Jakob did nothing of the kind. In truth, dropping off the daily paper to the newsstand should not have taken more than a minute, but on that day, he dillied and dallied as long as he could, all the while smiling at Leena.

“You’ll be here tomorrow, yes?” Jakob asked as he walked back to the delivery truck.

“Tomorrow is Monday. I’ll be in school,” Leena answered with a huff. She was annoyed by the handsome young delivery driver. Yet something about his smile made it harder by the second to stay so. “I only work on weekends.”

“Then Jakob will see you Saturday.” With a tip of his cap, he was gone.

When Saturday arrived, Leena wasn’t sure what she was hoping for. She was intrigued by the boy who smiled, and she was more attracted to his broken English than she would have expected. He was rough around the edges and not the kind who normally turned her head. 

So why had she thought about him nonstop for a week?

Jakob handed the daydreaming teen a newspaper. “This is for you.”

“What? Why are you giving me this?” 

“Because paper has all the news of the world—anything you want to know is in there.”

“Thank you, Jakob,” Leena responded with an unexpected smile.

“You very welcome. Miss...” Jakob leaned forward, hoping the pause would have the desired effect.

“Leena. My name is Leena.”

“You very welcome, Miss Leena. I see you tomorrow.”

And thus began a tradition. Every Saturday and Sunday, Jakob would bring Leena the newspaper and they would talk. Very early on, they discovered the coincidence of their families’ hometown. Leena loved it when Jakob told her stories of Uglich with its cobblestoned streets and brightly colored buildings. Leena, in turn, would read Jakob stories from the paper. In the beginning, she did this because he hadn’t yet learned to read English. Over time, though, she grew to love reading to Jakob, and he loved the sound of her voice.

One day, Jakob broke the routine and asked Leena a question.

“Leena, what can I do for you?”

“What do you mean, Jakob? Yah don’t have to do anything for me. I enjoy your company.”

“You don’t understand, Miss Leena. Your reading brings me joy. I want to bring you joy.”

Jakob didn’t know that reading meant as much to her as it did to him, and she looked forward to their daily conversations. Without giving it much thought, however, she answered him.

“Yah see that old lady over there?”

“The one with the packages?”

“Yeah. She’s struggling. Go help her.”

“As you wish.” In no time Jakob was carrying the elderly woman’s bundles, a kind deed he would often repeat.

From that day, when Leena would read to Jakob, he would help one of their neighbors. Sometimes he would fetch their groceries while other times he’d walk their dogs. He became proficient with small household repairs, replacing lightbulbs and faulty wiring. Before long, the young couple became a fixture in Flatbush. Neighbors gossiped about the girl who read and the boy who helped.

Love at first sight—true love at first sight—is a phenomenon that takes years to reveal itself. For Jakob, it took four. “I am to marry you, one day,” he told Leena a few weeks after they met. Jakob had not spoken idly but it took four years for him to find the courage to ask for her hand.

A gentleman to his core, Jakob first asked permission to marry Leena from her father. After this permission was secured, he set his plan in motion. On a beautiful Sunday, the couple sat on a sun-drenched bench in the middle of Central Park. Jakob handed Leena an envelope and asked her if she would read the letter inside. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she read the words, written by his hand in English.

Leena, you are the love of my life. You give meaning to my soul. You are the only irreplaceable thing. Will you please be my wife?

All Leena could do through her tears was nod.

“Jakob finally makes you speechless,” he said as the two laughed and shared a kiss.

Four days later, Leena had a surprise of her own. On their bench, she opened the paper to the wedding announcements and pointed to a picture. “Look at this,” she said, smiling from ear to ear.

“It is us,” Jakob shouted. “We are in the paper!”

“Mr. and Mrs. Irving Copin have the pleasure of…” Leena started to read before Jakob interrupted his bride-to-be. Turning to strangers passing by, he announced to the world, “Everyone! You know it’s true. I am marrying Leena. It says so in the paper!” 

Jakob ran to the flower vendor on the corner to buy a spray of flowers. 

He turned back to Leena, who gave her fiancée a wink and pointed to Susan, a little girl walking with her mother. Susan’s father, a soldier, had been a fixture in the park before joining the army and heading to Europe to fight. The news of his death had left a hole in the heart of the neighborhood and his daughter. Leena cried happy tears when Jakob handed the girl her tulips and lilies. The smile on the little girls face was brighter than the sun that shone down on the young couple.

It was Jakob’s greatest gift to Leena by far.

🜋 🜋 🜋

By the time he and Leena were married, Jakob had long since stopped delivering papers. He now owned and ran a small newsstand while Leena taught English at the local high school. The young couple moved into a modest apartment, not far from the movie theater where they first met.

Each day was busier than the last, but every night, Leena would read the newspaper to Jakob. When she was done, he would do an odd job or perform a small favor for a neighbor or a random stranger.

On warm summer nights when the sun stayed up until past nine, the two would sit together on the same bench in Prospect Park. Leena would read the paper while Jakob, always the gentleman, would tip his cap to the ladies as they passed by and stand to shake the men’s hands. 

When the weather was cold, Jakob and Leena sat inside on their favorite chairs for the nightly reading. 

As the years passed, so did history. Leena read to Jakob about Hitler invading Poland and Truman dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. She read to him when the war ended and the day President Kennedy was shot. It was during these readings he learned of Apollo 1’s unspeakable tragedy and Apollo 11’s historic victory. Even after Jakob learned to read himself, he never read the newspaper. That was Leena’s job and her greatest joy. 

🜋 🜋 🜋

Sixty years can feel like forever, but for Jakob and Leena it passed in the blink of an eye. They spent every day together and yet it still was never enough. The last night that Leena read to Jakob, she only completed a single news article before exhaustion overtook her.

“Would it be alright if I went to bed early tonight,” Leena asked, smiling at her husband.

“As you wish.” Jakob responded, helping her from her chair and walking with her into the bedroom.

The next morning Leena was gone.

There would be no great memorial or public service. It had never been Leena’s way. Instead, as a lasting tribute to his beautiful bride, Jakob placed an obituary in the same newspaper Leena had read to him all these years. He wasn’t a man given to soaring rhetoric, so the announcement of his wife’s death was understandably short. Jakob had to trust that his words would be printed accurately as Leena wasn’t there to read it to him, and his eyesight was failing.

The following day at four o’clock, Jakob, out of habit, moved to his favorite chair next to Leena’s, which sat empty. With no paper to read and no company to entertain, his only companions were silence and bittersweet memories, until there came a knock at the door.

Jakob, slightly unnerved by the unexpected interruption, slowly rose to his feet, walked across the room, and opened the door to find a face he knew well.

“Hi Jakob,” Susan said. “Do you remember the flowers you gave me when I was little?”

“Of course I remember, but don’t forget it was Leena’s idea,” he said with a small chuckle.

"On my darkest day, you brought me sunshine. I've never forgotten that."

“It was my pleasure," Jakob said, smiling at the pleasant memory. "What can I do for you today?”

“You can let me read to you.”

“Why would you want to read to me?” Jakob asked, perplexed.

“Because I was chosen to go first.”

“First?”

“Yes. Look out into the hallway.”

Susan stepped aside, allowing Jakob to look down the corridor. As far as the eye could see, there was a line of friends and neighbors, each one with a newspaper under their arm.

“I know you feel alone, but no one is alone who is loved. None of us can replace Leena, but we can repay your kindness by standing in for her. Today is my day.”

“Come in, Susan.” Jakob said, wiping tears from his eyes, “Come in and sit.”

After Jakob found his way back to his favorite chair, Susan sat down, opened the paper, and began to read from the obituaries:

To Leena, 

Your voice was the story of our lives. I await the day when you will read to me again. 

Love, Jakob



“Now that we have that out of the way—let’s turn to page one.”